1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for programming the cooperative motion of a plurality of robots.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an arc welding process or a trimming process on a workpiece having a complicated shape, a plurality of robots (for example, two robots) may be cooperatively controlled. In the teaching of the cooperative control, the robots are moved one-by-one, so as to determine a taught position of each robot, by means of an operating panel or the like. Alternatively, two robots may be simultaneously moved by using a cooperative jog function. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-9279 discloses a welding robot system in which a welding robot and a positioner are cooperatively controlled. Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-340756 discloses a robot controller in which a plurality of robots are taught in parallel by a plurality of operators so as to reduce the time of teaching.
When a plurality of robots are moved one-by-one, a jog operation for each robot must be carried out gradually, from the viewpoint of cooperation of the robots. Therefore, the operation takes a long time. On the other hand, when the cooperative jog function is used, two robots may be simultaneously moved. However, a teaching operation for a complicated process, such as arc welding or trimming in three-dimensional space, must be carried out by a person highly skilled in the art and also takes a long time. Also, in general, the cooperative jog function can be applied to only two robots. Therefore, if three or more robots are necessary, much more time is necessary for the teaching operation. As described above, as the teaching operation needs a long time, the starting-up of a robot system including the robots also takes a long time or many man-hours.